News alert: CAPSULE is playing two more shows in VRchat (the first of which is in a few hours) https://twitter.com/CAPSULEOFFICIAL/status/1690156304122396672

Related news alert: CAPSULE is still the coolest band on the planet

THIS SONG RIPS, PARKMOONCHI AND CO ARE THE COOLEST ON THE SCENE https://youtu.be/PpBl5YQ-xaA?t=2363 The music video has one of the most criminally low viewcounts I’ve ever seen! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C65vFxEr-sk

I’ve been thinking a lot about this discussion https://youtu.be/sYpKg6HR1z8?t=2414 and now I find Mitski releasing this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9Yy_3dk750 to be so completely fascinating. I actually paused in the beginning of the video where she gave the disclaimer to really consider if I wanted to watch the video. She was basically warning that the magician is going to tell you how the trick is done. I ended up watching of course but appreciated that she acknowledged the weird territory we’re in as far as access to artists online and let me decide for myself if this was too much.

As a trash wannabe songwriter I did find it extremely helpful. I’ve moved away from intentional ambiguity in lyrics instead trying to be more concrete and paint a clearer picture in the listener’s head. She goes all-in on both. So interesting. I think I’ll still stray away from the ambiguity but it’s always so helpful to have other approaches to triangulate against.

I also wonder why she felt like making this explainer. Maybe she got annoyed by people pegging her wrong and not appreciating how deliberate and calculated her songwriting is. Or maybe she’s seeing songwriter stuff on algo timelines and wanted to join the party.

Yes it was a bit weird watching it but I mostly just felt grateful after. Here’s this giga-genius monster songwriter, one of the coolest musicians on the planet walking me through her songwriting process for a new song. We’re definitely diving deeper into weird new territory but I don’t feel like any magic tricks got ruined.

The future is bright https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mzvHD2FjSN0

This is the greatest DJ youtube channel I’ve ever found https://youtu.be/JRDqN_inxmQ?t=5258

I keep thinking about this lately https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zD7TxGTPsV4

This will be just a post of some random updates/links.

Update 1: My Ableton Push 3 order is processing. https://www.ableton.com/en/push/ if you’re not familiar. Looks amazing and I’m SO excited to play around with it. Will it be a big unlock that moves me forward musically or just a fun distraction? Probably the latter, but time will tell. Overall I’m still trash at making electronic music and I still feel a million miles away from my goal of someday writing a truly great song. edit: I got the push 3 and within 1 hour I had found 3 dealbreaker level hardware faults. Props to them for aiming high but this product should not have gone to market in this state, I’m returning it.

Update 2: My bass has some kind of a weird internal vibration buzz when I sustain a note, almost like something is barely loose and rattling. It’s like fret buzz but it’s not that. I think it’s something inside the pickups that’s loose? Also can’t tell if it’s something new or just something I somehow never noticed in 15 years of playing and loving that instrument. Side note, Spector just dropped a new revision https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vhn_U4dXGOc which seems very cool. I’m fine with the one I’ve got though- recently told a friend I’ll play it till the day I die if it makes it and that’s really how I feel. edit: loose pickup screw! Tightened it and it’s all good. Also figured out I bought it ~19 years ago, not 15. Time flies.

Update 3: I got the Capsule Metro Pulse special edition and some refurbed Beyerdynamic DT 700 Pro X’s. The trio of instrumentals on disc 2 at full volume on those cans was like an imax movie lol holy smokes those tracks are masterpieces.

Update 4: Today in social media is a mess I took the plunge with https://xavd.id/blog/post/archive-your-reddit-data/ and https://github.com/x89/Shreddit - end of an era. Also someone squatted my discord handle before me and at this point I barely care.

Link 1: Incredible https://youtu.be/B3PP2ZXWyP8?list=PLAV5Ak5dAf9bBL_ynqyLqFI4cuPECLS0o&t=955

Link 2: Magic https://youtu.be/8i0tNPEGsiY?list=PLAV5Ak5dAf9bBL_ynqyLqFI4cuPECLS0o&t=163

Link 3: This tribute https://www.facebook.com/TuckandPatti/photos/recently-we-lost-a-dear-old-friend-and-one-of-my-greatest-inspirations-terry-sau/10155369365008726/

Link 4: Love Cloud is a joy, team perfume is unstoppable and Nakata is in peak form https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QEZxDEAToYI

The many independent music scenes in the twin cities are on fire. It’s reaching a point where it’s feeling like a statistical probability that something will break out and become huge. Maybe not lizzo level breakout, but the next big act out of the twin cities is for sure already playing local gigs. The coolest/most encouraging thing about this newer crop is there seems to be waaaay more scene/genre cross-pollination going on. Everybody is jamming with everybody. Here’s just the latest of many drops in many genres that really made me pause and say wow https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ov3lE_ZNPL0&list=OLAK5uy_mZM03jIndOmZDI48Cc4DnGPTSGaXWlWw0

Who’s it gonna be, jaefontane or somebody from the water wave crew? Soulflower or Marvelous from the cherry pit crew? biggkiaa or somebody already getting people hype at at creative_mpls and the entry? Some music school kids or rockers like the dregs playing creator’s cup? Some bedroom pop artist like sun.bear? Some intellephunk or mplshouse DJ/producer? It’s anybody’s game.

Yo the saaaaaax in this. Rafa is amazing! https://youtube.com/shorts/MLu0tRdu4hk

edit the hooktheory site linked below is kind of mess on mobile so maybe just visit it on desktop

I’ve never seen this hooktheory site before but wow some of the chord charts for Nakata stuff are the best I’ve seen. Woulda been actually so helpful learning some of this stuff. Kind of hit or miss but the good stuff is really good when you hit the just piano button https://www.hooktheory.com/theorytab/view/capsule/hello spice has some whiffed chords and needs the post-chorus! https://www.hooktheory.com/theorytab/view/perfume/spice spotless https://www.hooktheory.com/theorytab/view/capsule/plastic-girl tilts me when stuff is wrong though, like Kamaitachi is missing the chords that make the whole song interesting (should be in the second time thorugh the chorus progression) https://www.hooktheory.com/theorytab/view/kyary-pamyu-pamyu/kamaitachi whereas Mondai Girl nails the the peculiar chords in the pre-chorus https://www.hooktheory.com/theorytab/view/kyary-pamyu-pamyu/mondai-girl go go fine day in piano is fun https://www.hooktheory.com/theorytab/view/capsule/go-go-fine-day

Also fascinating are the charts analyzing the complexity of the composition. They consistently show simple as heck melodies on top of off-the-charts complex chords. It’s data validating what I’ve found so fun for years

Example from https://www.hooktheory.com/theorytab/view/capsule/rgb